The Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA) Director Daniel Markic said in an interview with Saturday's Vecernji List that Russia had increased cyber-attacks on Croatia, and that most attacks were aimed at stealing sensitive information from ministries and the Tax Administration.

“In Croatia, not only our institutions were attacked, but also large companies, both from criminal groups and from state-sponsored groups. We have seen a few years ago that NATO and the European Union have started to use the attribution of these attacks, that is, to show and say publicly who is behind these attacks. Given the current situation in Ukraine, there is no reason for us to keep it a secret. Some of these cyber-attacks come from groups linked to Russian intelligence agencies,” Markic said.

He added that the attacks increased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but also because of Covid as our professional and social life often moved to the cyber world. And the interest of certain states and criminal groups has automatically increased.

"This war, which is more or less unexpected, can potentially have very fatal consequences not only for Ukraine, because Ukraine is already suffering severe consequences. But we cannot potentially rule out the possibility that this attack could spread in a military sense. In the meantime, it is our duty first and foremost to be vigilant with anything that might happen in our neighbourhood. Russian influence in the region is well known, especially in Serbia, so we need to be careful. And as we see that the Russian operation in Ukraine is clearly not going according to plan, we cannot rule out the possibility that Russia will use other ways, including activities in the cyber world, to act,” he added.